Best Tablets of 2013

Are you thinking of buying a tablet?

Find out about the best tablets for you.

Tablets are now one of the most popular electronics and are quickly taking over desktop computers territory. They're light, cheap, and easy to use, and in this article we'll go over the best tablets of 2013 for each type of user, and each price range.

Number One: The Apple iPad

$499+

Apple iPad is by far the most popular tablet out there, with well over half the entire market for tablets, and with good reason. While it's certainly not the fastest gaming tablet (although it is one of the fastest), or the cheapest slate out there, it's the tablet that you're most likely to actually use, and not get frustrated and go back to your old laptop. The Pros: It's design is clean and beautiful, and everything in the tablet from the operating system to the hardware works seamlessly. Because all of the hardware was specifically made for the operating system and all the software is individually approved for the tablet you will almost never experience crashes, a bricked tablet, or other issues. While each app has to be individually approved, developers see that there is a huge market for iPad apps and there are now almost 300,000 apps built specifically for the iPad (not the iPhone, specifically for the iPad). That means you won't have to deal with clunky graphics from bad ports of iPhone apps like some Android tablets and you'll have one of the best entertainment machines out there. The Cons: While the iPad's "little brother", the iPad Mini fixes this problem, the traditional iPad HD is 10 inches and you won't be able to fit it in your pocket, or even most purses and handbags. Also, if you're looking for a tablet that you can customize and tweak to your liking, you're better off with a Google Android tablet.

Amazon Kindle Fire HD

$199+

Amazon's Kindle Fire, the 7 inch tablet that runs Amazon's custom Android based operating system and has hundreds of thousands of books, movies, and games from Amazon's App Store is a great device. At 7 inches, it's more portable than the iPad and while it doesn't beat the iPad's performance it is very easy to use right out of the box and has great speakers and a high definition screen. The Pros:At only $199, the Kindle Fire HD is almost a third of the price of the iPad, and it still performs excellently. Over the years, Amazon has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into buying up content, from books, to movies, to games, and it's all paying off with the Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire HD, like the iPad, has a huge amount of apps from Amazon that will work seamlessly with your device but unlike the Apple iPad you can also download other Android App Stores and increase the number of apps available even more from the internet. Amazon's library of millions of books is by far the best out there and while the Fire's screen isn't e-ink there is little glare and reading is a great experience. Lastly, Amazon's instant video service is on par with iTunes. You can either download each movie and TV show individually on demand or you can pay $79 a year for Amazon Prime (or free if you're a college student) and get access to their hundreds of thousands of well known TV shows and movies like The Walking Dead. The Cons: The Kindle Fire HD is only 7 inches, and while this makes it portable and easy to hold, it's not the best if you want to watch movies or TV with your friends and family, but the 8.9 inch Kindle Fire fixes this problem. It's not always as smooth as the Apple iPad, but overall this tablet is by far the best in its price range.

Asus Transformer Pad TF300

$329+

For people looking for a tablet that's high performance while still being affordable the Asus Transformer TF300 is a great choice. It runs on the Tegra 3 processor and is snappy fast but one of the greatest features of this tablet is its ability to be paired with a detachable keyboard (sold separately for $149, or $119 on Amazon) that features a trackpad for doing tasks that are better on a laptop than on a tablet like typing out long documents or emails. The Pros: It's reasonably fast and has a nice 8 megapixel rear camera. It's running Google Android 4.0.3 and runs it well with few problems. Like most Google Android tablets you can install SD cards that can inexpensively improve memory size. While all of these features are great, what really makes the TF300 stand out is the fact that you can easily plug it into a great keyboard with a trackpad essentially eliminating the biggest issue with all tablets, the difficulty of navigating through features still better on PCs. The TF300 is also more affordable than other Asus tablets with similar specs. The Cons: Unfortunately, for the sake of the price, Asus has removed some features present in their other more expensive tablets. The body is now made of plastic and is a few millimetres thicker than other tablets. Lastly, it's less portable than other tablets at 1.4 pounds and a 10 inch screen.

Microsoft Surface

The Microsoft Surface is the first computer Microsoft has ever made, and it's a stellar device. As you've probably seen from some of the ads Microsoft has spent over a billion dollars on, it is not your average tablet. From its larger than average screen size, to detachable "keypad" with a mouse pad, the Surface is a class of its own in tablets. The Surface is overall the best work tablet out there, but its lack of apps and other content made specifically for the device make the device lag in entertainment.The Pros: Like the Asus TF300 it comes with a detachable keyboard but the Surface's keyboard isn't like your regular PC keyboard. It doesn't have buttons, so there's no touch typing, but after a few days, you will get used to it and it becomes almost as easy as a full keyboard, if not better thanks to its ability to serve as a cover for the screen. Also, the keyboard comes with a solid trackpad, so there's no awkward typing while tapping that you may experience on other tablets. The Surface is fast, and while its operating system could be optimized for touch interfaces a bit more, it's a nice operating system with cool hand gestures, multitasking, and other features.The Cons: The operating system is drastically different from Android and iOS, and you will take a few hours of playing around with it to become fluent with it. Also, the device is more like a laptop (although it's still very thin) so like the iPad and other larger tablets you can't put it in your pocket or your purse. Lastly, possibly the biggest issue for the Surface is a lack of apps. While it's true that the device was only just released, apps are extremely scarce and if you're looking for a tablet mainly for games, and other apps, you're better off with a device like the iPad, or the Kindle Fire.